This invention relates generally to the construction of a brick facing, and in particular to improvements in the components used in securing the thin brick facing onto a building structure.
As is well known, thin bricks are used in place of standard bricks to create a brick facing on building structures. These exterior brick surfaces are not intended to be load bearing, and primarily serve an aesthetic function. The use of standard load bearing bricks can be expensive in that the bricks themselves, being larger, require additional material in forming. Further, laying standard sized bricks requires highly trained masons who have developed expertise in brick laying. The process is time-consuming, and most individuals lack the requisite skills.
Thin bricks have the advantage of being easier to install. Generally, the assemblies have an insulation board or backing board to which thin bricks are mounted. The backing board is attached to supporting structure on the building and mortar is then applied in the joints between the bricks. In one type of system, brick panels are pre-fabricated by gluing the thin bricks to the backing board. The pre-fabricated brick panels are then transported to the job site to be attached to the building. This type of system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,104.
In the assembly disclosed in the '104 patent, support clips connect the brick assembly to the underlying building support structure. The brick tile facing, through the use of these clips, can then be supported independent of the backing member. Although commercially successful, a disadvantage of this system is that the pre-fabricated brick panels are difficult to transport, and are difficult to cut into desired shapes. Use of pre-fabricated brick panels is particularly undesirable for a person doing smaller home-improvement projects.
As an alternative, attempts have been made to provide a more manageable system adjusted particularly for the home-improvement user. A system that has smaller disassembled pieces which can be packaged more easily and assembled at the job site. Such a brick facing system can be constructed at less cost, and the individual components are transported more easily.
One such attempt at providing a brick panel system requiring assembly includes a backing member having an insulation layer and a separate plastic face which must be attached to the insulating layer. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,470. The plastic face contains channels for aligning brick tiles into rows. These two layer backing members are more complicated and thereby more costly to produce than a backing member formed of a single material. Also, the channels are believed to be more rigid and less receptive to bricks having varying widths which is sometimes a problem.
The use of a backing member formed from a single sheet of material is known. Great Britain Patent GB 1478863 discloses a backing member formed from a foam insulation sheet which includes channels formed directly in the sheet. The channels are adapted to retain individual brick tiles. The channels further include projections which extend transversely into an adjacent channel to provide resistance to hold the brick tile.
The difficulty with this type of panel is that the transversely extending projections can cause difficulties with placing the thin brick tile fully into the channel. If the brick tiles do not lay uniformly and properly within the channel of the backing member, the completed brick wall will have an uneven, undesirable finish.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide an improved backing member adapted to uniformly retain standard thin brick tiles, the backing member being formed of a single insulating sheet which can be easily and inexpensively formed in mass production. It is a further object of this invention to provide a support clip which can be used in conjunction with this backing member to easily connect the insulating sheet to an underlying support structure and which when mortared will directly connect the bricks to the underlying structure.